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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85371	Jacob raised: or, The means of making a nation happy both in spiritual and temporal priviledges. Presented in a sermon preached before the Right Honorable House of Peeres in the Abby Church at Westminster, at the late solemne monthly fast, Decemb. 30. 1646. / By Willam [sic] Goode, B.D. and Pastor of Denton in Norfolk. Published by order of the House of Peeres.	Goode, William, b. 1599 or 1600.	1647 (1647)	Wing G1094; Thomason E369_3; ESTC R201278	27,277	38

a yet greater judgement arise upon us Though our dangers yet be great because of our intestine divisions and the unwearied plots of our enemies and which is worst of all Reformation of Religion with a hedge about it is not yet perfected but Prophanesse Heresies and Blasphemies in many places abound more then ever Yet let us not murmure To be kept long in the wildernesse hath been the condition of Gods people before us Let us wait upon God with patience and thankfulnesse improving studiously those means for recovery He hath blest us with untill the Lord be pleased to raise us out of these present troubles and dangers and accomplish for us those rich mercies which we desire and hope for Patience is a quiet silent frame of soule under troubles submiting to God without murmuring or declining any work God sets us about And to encourage and perswade us to this Patience take these brief Considerations First They that wait for Gods salvation with a free and full submission to his will and bearing of his indignation manifested in those crosses and afflictions which he brings upon them for their sins or tryall shall never fail of such an issue as shall conduce most to their true and eternal happinesse Jer. 30. 18. Secondly The more patient we are under cure the sooner we shall be healed nothing more hinders the cure of wounds then the distempered strugling and unquietnesse of the Patient When David in his flight from Absolon came to this degree of submission unto God 2 Sam. 15. 26. Here I am let him do unto me what seemeth good in his eyes David quickly got the victory over Absolon and all that rose up in that rebellion with him When Hezekiah came to this after God had threatned that all his treasures and jewels should be taken away and his sons become Eunuches to the King of Babylon as to say Isaiah 39. 8. Good is the word of the Lord God presently respited the judgement and let Peace and Truth be in his dayes We could not but expect to meet with great and long troubles by the strongest oppositions that men or devils can stir up against us because we endeavour to carry Reformation to the highest pitch Psal. 2. 1 2. When Christ sets up his kingdome the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing The Kings of the earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsell against the Lord and against his Anointed When the Jewes began to build the Wall of Jerusalem Sanballet and Tobias and the Arabians c. they all conspired together to go and fight against Jerusalem Nehem. 4. 8. When they began to build the Temple their enemies hired Counsellors and wrote Letters against them unto Cyrus King of Persia Ezra 4. 5. and designed their ruine Evill men will strive for their lusts as for their lives and therefore will struggle much against that Reformation that will either curb their extravagancies or expose them to much disgrace and scorn even amongst their inferiours And not only evill men but Satan will muster up all his forces for opposition when he sees his kingdom going down As Jaylers when they see their prisoners ready to break out they will then thrust them into the Dungeon and double their irons So Satan when he discernes the Liberty and Purity of the Gospel is like to take his prisoners from him he will shakle them with all troubles and miseries he can get commission to bring upon them Fourthly All our troubles are much lesse then our deservings God might have stub'd us up when he went about to prune us God might have turned us into dust as he did Sodome and Gomorrah seeing our sins are greater then theirs could be that never abused gospel-Gospel-mercy as we have done and surely it is only the Lords mercy we are not consumed In the midst of our judgements God hath remembred mercy and by many miraculous deliverances in our greatest streits hath let us see that he would not give us up to be a prey to the teeth of our enemies and still we we have balm in Gilead and physitians there though our sins exceedingly obstruct our perfect healing Fifthly God useth by long afflictions many times to prepare us for great mercies Joseph was a great while in the hands of strangers and afterward in prison before he became ruler of Aegypt Israel were instructed with the Rod forty yeares in the wildernesse before they were made possessors of the land that flowed with milk and hony and afterward were humbled with seventy yeares Captivity before they enjoyed the glory of the second Temple And Antichrist must reign and afflict the Saints a thousand years before the glorious times of the Church A field that is to be sowen with curious seed that is all over-grown with briars and thorns will take a long time in stulbing and preparing And stones that are to be placed in a curious building will take a long time in hewing and squaring Sixthly We still go on to continue and multiply our sins now to have gods judgements removed before we be amended were the greatest judgement of all For God thus not to be angry were the greatest anger of all For the Chyrurgion to pull off his salves and to leave dressing the wounds of his Patient before he were healed were to leave him desperate of any cure at all God doth not afflict willingly neither doth he take any delight in the troubles of his own people and therefore sure we are not yet fit for those mercies we desire or else God would not continue to multiply his judgements upon us Now better had we be content with any cure then to be suffered to go on still in our sins There is nothing so much bitternesse in those rods that drive us unto God as in those sins by which we are separated from God Kingdoms are well bought whatever price we give for them saith a Heathen Whatever pressures we undergo the purchase will be happy if the Kingdom of Jesus Christ for the comfort of us and our posterity may be at length advanced among us Seventhly We may be patient because our troubles shall neither be greater nor longer then makes for Gods glory and our good One of the sharpest and longest miseries that befell Israel was the Babylonish captivity and yet God saith of that I have sent them into Chaldea for their good Jer. 24. 5. Affliction is measured out only by God himself neither men nor devils can touch one hair of our heads without licence first sued out from God Affliction springs not out of the dust Job 5. 6. Is there any evil in the city that I have not done saith God Now God knowes our strength is not the strength of stones nor our flesh the flesh of brasse Job 6. 12. And therefore God doth afflict his people in measure Isa. 27. 7. God that is our Physitian to mixe the potion of our adversity

Die Jovis 31. Decembr 1646. ORdered by the Lords in Parliament Assembled That this House gives thanks to Mr. Goode one of the Assembly of Divines for his great paines taken in his Sermon preached the last Fast before the Lords of Parliament in the Abby Church Westminster And he is hereby desired to print and publish the same which is to be printed only by authority under his own hand John Browne Cler. Parliamen I do appoint Nathanaell Webb and William Grantham to print my Sermon William Goode JACOB RAISED OR The means of making a Nation happy both in spiritual and temporal Priviledges Presented in A SERMON Preached before the Right Honorable House of PEERES in the Abby Church at Westminster at the late Solemne Monthly Fast Decemb. 30. 1646. By Willam Goode B. D. and Pastor of Denton in Norfolk Published by Order of the House of Peeres Psal. 68. 1. Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered Ezek. 36. 11. I will do better to you then at your beginnings 1 Chron. 22. 19. Now set your heart and soul to seek the Lord your God arise therefore and build yee the Sanctuary of the Lord God London Printed by T. R. and E. M. for Nath. Webb and Will. Grantham at the sign of the Grey-hound in Pauls Church-yard 1647. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE The House of PEERES Assembled in PARLIAMENT Right Honorable AS the goodnesse of God that hitherto hath afforded a miraculous preservation to the Parliament of England and hath never failed to give in mercifull Deliverances in time of need and to make many admirable returnes of Prayer doth manifest that God is with you in your pious endeavours for the settling of Truth and Peace So is it evident that our sinnes do with-hold good things from us that notwithstanding the Balm that is in Gilead and the Physitians there yet we are not healed The Sword is not sheathed the Pestilence not ceased and Famine a Plague worse then these begins to threaten us Ignorance Prophanesse Heresies get ground in many places of the Land and hence such as are enemies to Peace and Reformation encourage themselves with hope to see the time when they shall cause your work to cease and bring us back again to Egypt It therefore highly concernes all of all conditions to examine what their iniquities are that put a stop to the current of Gods Mercies towards us and when they have stoned the Achans in their owne bosome to mourn for the sinnes of others and to wrestle with God for pardon and such a spirit of repentance as may fit the Land for those high and excellent Mercies both for soul and body which hitherto have been the object both of our prayers and hopes Now as no meanes of cure are successefull further then Gods owne power and blessing have a concurrence with them so the onely way to procure Gods assistance is to make such application to him as may most strongly engage him to be with you in all your endeavours And seeing God doth all things for his owne glorie to advance such waies as will make the name of God most glorious in the Land must needs be the greatest engagement you can make of God Some few directions for this purpose by your Lordships command I presented to your eares and now by the same command present them to your eyes The chief whereof was this the advancement of Gospel-truth and the power of godlinesse The Psalmist tels us In Jury is God well known his name is great in Israel Where God is best known he is most glorified God is rightly made known only by his own truth revealed in his Word and as this is more or lesse defended propagated and obedience thereunto yeelded so is God more or lesse honoured by any Nation and their spirituall and temporall priviledges more or lesse enlarged Basill and Ambrose say of the Echineis or Remora a little fish that if it joyn it self to a Ship under sayle it will make it stand still and quiet though driven with the greatest tempests Like this Echineis to a Ship is Religion to a State which while your Lordships have endeavoured to reforme and establish you have been preserved in safety while so many dreadfull stormes have blown from one end of the Land unto another God therefore having trusted you in a speciall manner with the guarding of his Truth and Ordinances let it be your greatest care to preserve and propagate these in their power and purity And then you may commit both your own and the Kingdoms safetie with confidence unto Gods keeping And whatsoever storms shall be raised against you and such as be with you in the Cause of God he will quiet them in his appointed time and give a prevailing command to all your enemies saying Destroy not the Cluster for there is a blessing in it Isaiah 65. 8. Thus may your Honours not only be Physitians to heal our Land but make plentifull provisions for your own happinesse to eternity whereas otherwise those great talents of honour authority and wealth which God hath entrusted you with will be but the improvement of your everlasting misery Alcibiades bragging of his great possessions Socrates to abate his pride fetched him a Map of the World and desired him to show him where his possessions lay but there he could not find them All Athens in that being but a point Remember that what ever possessions great men have here yet Not many wise not many rich not many mighty shall have inheritances in heaven As therefore God hath done great things for you so do you great things for God Let your authority be the bulwark of the innocent the axe to cut downe prophanesse injustice and oppression in the Land Let Ireland be releived and such at home as the Publike service hath made Widows or Orphants or necessitous be succoured Let those little Sisters that have no breasts be provided for all the Kingdom over Let grace and holinesse be seen in their own colours in your lives and examples that your copies which are seen and read of all men may make them in love with godlinesse that when God shall divest you of your great possessions here he may invest you with a glorious inheritance among the Saints in his own Kingdom for ever which that he may do is the prayer of Your Lordships humble servant in the Lord WILLIAM GOODE A Sermon Preached before the Right Honourable House of LORDS at their late Solemn Monthly Fast Decemb. 30. 1646. Amos 7. 5. last words By whom shall JACOB arise for he is small THe great miseries which this Prophet saw were coming upon the people of Israel and those desolating judgements which he had a commission to denounce against them were the cause of this mournfull question in my text He Prophecied in the time of Jeroboam the Second who was the Son of Joash 2 King 14. 24. In his reign Israel had some restauration in regard of their outward estate

for us is our Father as well as our Physitian and he is the tenderest Father in the world and therefore he will neither keep us longer in Physick nor put any more Ingredients of bitternes in it than will be for our health but will let us see at length All things shall work together for our good Rom. 8. 28. Absolon sent twice to Joab to come and speak with him and he would not at length he sent his servants to set Joabs corn on fire and so compelled him to come unto him 2 Sam. 14. 30. When gentle means will not prevaile God surprizeth our greatest comforts and draws our afflictions to a greater height and length that he may compell us to come to him and draw out our soules in prayer with that fervencie and constancie that he may hear and deliver us Isa. 26. 16. Eighthly Wharever the afflictions of Gods people are yet their condition is most comfortable of any other in the world and that appears in three things 1. They may be filii sub ira children under wrath but not filii irae sons of wrath For nothing shall separate them from the love of Christ Not tribulation nor distresse nor persecution nor famine nor sword Rom. 8. 35. The Righteous are like mount Sion that shall never be removed But that shall ever be made good to them 1 Pet. 1. 5. They shall be kept by the power of God unto salvation 2. Whatever they want in the world yet they ever enjoy the best comforts such as issue from the speciall love and favour of God in Christ Jesus Pardon of sin peace of conscience and joy of believing which is unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1. 8. These are better then any comforts of the world When all the Stars in the Firmament shine it is but Night but the shining of one Sun makes it Day Gods favour makes it Day when all the Creature-contentments enjoyed together make but a Night of comfort And hence it was that Habacuck said Although the Fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the Fields yield no meat the Flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no Heard in the stall Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Hab. 3. 17 18. 3. The more bitternesse they meet with here the more sweetnesse to eternity Such may be our afflictions as may cause us to pay the debt of Death the sooner yet this shall be our advantage We shall hereby sooner rest from our labours and be in possession of perfect blessednesse the reward of Gods Free-grace And therefore every godly man may say of his Persecutors as Socrates of Anitus and Melitus They may kill me but they cannot hurt me The time will come when I shall be the happier for all my trials As Sampson when he went down to the vineyards of Timnath he slew a Lion a work of labour and danger but when he returned again weary and faint he found honey in the dead Lion to refresh and comfort him The undergoing of sore afflictions is like the killing of a Lion but when we return by death we shall find honey in the dead Lion much sweeter consolations for all the sorrows our afflictions have brought upon us Augustine having a friend that suffered much by slander he comforted him with this He that willingly adds to thy defamation here doth unwillingly adde to thy eternal glory hereafter As St. Paul tels us 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Thus much of the first Proposition I come now to the second When there is no meanes visible or if visible not effectual for our recovery then we ought to apply our selves to God to work deliverance for us So Amos here All effectual means of recovery for this people lying out of sight he enquires of God how their restauration shall be compassed and seeks to him to raise them Thus Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20. 12. When that great army of Moabites and Ammonites came against Jerusalem which he thought himself no way able to resist he saith We know not what to do but our eyes are upon thee And he and all the inhabitants of Judah set themselves to seek the Lord When the Prodigal Luk. 15. had no means left of supply but was ready to starve he then resolves I will go to my father Thus the Prophet Hoseah directs the people in distresse Hos. 5. 13. when God had said He would teare and none should deliver when Ahab and King Jared could afford no help Come saith the Prophet let us return unto the Lord he hath torne and he will heale The Reasons of this Point are First Because Gods people are never so small but God can raise them Is there any thing too hard for the Lord Gen. 18. 14. Though no salvation can be had from the hills or from the multitude of the mountains yet the Lord is the salvation of Israel Jer. 3. 23. God is the Lord of hosts and all the creatures in the world are but souldiers in that army which he commands and therefore there is no power raised against his people can be so great but he is able presently to suppresse it He can command an army of Stars to vanquish his peoples enemies as he did Sisera and his host Judg. 5. Or an army of Fire to defend them as he did for Elisha 2 King 6. 17. If they be in want of necessary food if the heavens be like brasse and the earth like iron yet he can rain down bread upon them as he did upon Israel He can instantly turn the greatest famine into plenty as in Samaria when one day the women did eat their children for want of bread the very next day two measures of Barley were sold for a shekel 2 King 7. 18. Secondly Because God hath made many comfortable promises to a people in such a condition to invite them to seek his help Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the day of thy trouble and I will deliver thee Psal. 34. 19. Many are the troubles of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of all Jer. 30. 17. Alas for that day is great so as none is like unto it even the day of Jacobs troubles but he shall be saved out of it But it may be objected What if God have decreed to bring desolating and destroying judgements upon a people Zeph. 2. 3. can any application to God divert those Whatever God decreeth against a Nation where he hath a People yet four things God will not fail to give to his own children that rightly seek his favour 1. Spiritual peace with himself Let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me 2. Spiritual

Judgement which may fall out among godly men and are not destructive to the peace of the Church nor hinder the propagation of the power of godlinesse let them be covered and healed by love Luther saith of these differences * they are to be burnt with the fire of love As Constantine when some Bishops brought him books of their private quarrels to read He took them and threw them into the fire and burnt them and so ended the controversie Pride and selvishnesse are the cause of most of our divisions and might easily be cured with love and humility which we have infinite reason to labour for The Apostle tels us of the danger of divisions Gal. 5. 15. If ye bite and devoure one another take heed ye be not consumed one of another But this is not all our danger There is nothing in probability in the world that can so certainly make the plot of the Jesuites to take in making us become a prey unto our enemies as our own contentions Let us not have lesse wisedome then those two Heathens Aristides and Themistocles that when they were to go together to negotiate the affairs of their country to a city of their Enemies could lay down all the difference betwixt themselves Either we are not brethren or else we should ask our selves this question Why should we contend Let all that are godly lay this to heart in time that we may have that unity in affection that we may live together as Brethren and the Power of godlinesse may be carried on in the Land and our united strength may be imployed for defence against the adversaries of Peace and Truth The second direction how to prevaile with God to raise the Nation is To advance those things that will make the name of God great in the Land If we would have God to honour us with his blessings we must study how to honour him by making his Name glorious There be 5 meanes whereby the knowledge and service of God and consequently his glory be principally promoted 1. Good Magistrates that will use their authority for the suppression of vice and prophanesse and the encouragement of such as are godly When God will enlarge the priviledges of his Church he will give Kings to be nursing fathers and Queens to be nursing mothers unto it Isa. 49. 23. and Isa. 60. 3. Kings shal be thy brightnesse And ver. 16. Thou shalt suck the breasts of Kings Whence we may take notice how great enemies they are to Religion and the glory of God that would divest Christian Magistrates of their power to command and strengthen Ecclesiastical Reformation or make it none of their duty to advance the knowledge and the true worship and service of God and to crush prophanesse and restrain and purge out such corruptions in Religion as are destructive to it by their Civil sanctions 2. The Ordinances of Iesus Christ The administration of the Word and Sacraments and Prayer c. By these God doth dispence his Grace unto his servants whereby they are enabled to believe and to walk according to the rule of Holinesse and to do good works whereby they glorifie their Father which is in heaven and make his Name great In all the places where I shall record my Name there I will meet you and I will blesse you Exod. 20. 24. God communicateth all his spiritual blessings in holy Ordinances These are the Throne out of which issue the seven Spirits Rev. 4. 5. In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make a feast of fat things to all people Isa. 25. 6. In a feast are plenty dainties and varieties So in Gods ordinances not only a beginning but a supply and increase of the choicest gifts and spiritual abilities to glorifie God are communicated 3. Able and godly Ministers for the preaching of the Gospel and dispencing of the mysteries of Christ are choise instruments of making Gods name great in a Kingdom God doth use these as Co workers with himself for the planting and watering of grace in the hearts of his children 1 Cor. 3. 6. 9. For this cause they are called sometimes Fathers that beget us through the Gospel unto Christ 1 Cor. 4. 15. sometimes Nurses or Pastors that feed us with the milk of the Gospel 1 Cor. 3. 2. Sometimes Stewards that faithfully dispence the rich treasures of Jesus Christ unto all such as belong unto the election of God 4. Order or Government according to the Word of GOD If the holinesse of any people make the Name of God great that is called upon them If it be the honour of the husband-man that his vineyard brings forth fruit which is amiable and usefull Then it must needs be much for his honour also that this vineyard and these fruits be preserved from waste or corruption Now Government it is the hedge of Gods vineyard A hedge is used as for separation to divide a Vineyard from common and open places so for defence to prevent it from the incursion of such as would pluck and destroy the fruits of it Censures are Gods Pruning-knife to lop off the dead boughs that his trees may beare more of that fruit that he delights in They are Gods medicine to drive out that leven that would sowre the whole lump of his people 1 Cor. 5. ● 5. 7. 5. The Saints These are the magazines of Grace and Holines and therefore no people in the world make the name of God so great and glorious as these do nor doth God make any Nation so great and happy as that where his own people receive entertainment When Israel were the only visible professors of truth and holinesse Moses saith Deut. 4. 7. Is there any Nation so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for Iustin Martyr cals the Saints the Supporters of the world It is no paradox to tell you That you may thank the Saints for your Wives your Children your Estates your Honours and all the comforts you enjoy because when once the number of the Elect is compleat all that remains in the world shall be burnt with fire Gods chosen people are called A blessing in the midst of the land Isa. 19. 24. and they are such a blessing as preserves all other blessings where they are There is no such fortification can be made to any Nation as the Christian entertainment of the Saints for whose preservation God will destroy both Kings and Kingdoms Isa. 43. 3. 4. I gave Egypt for thy ransome since thou wast precious in mine eyes thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee therefore will I give Men for thee and People for thy life When God intended to make Jerusalem victorious and prosperous then he saith The Governours of Iudah shall say in their hearts The inhabitants of Ierusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of Hosts their God Zach. 12. 5. The strength and blessings of